Guess its ok if you live in Vic or SA, as they are not dangerous there apparently

I reckon they are ok, as long as you use them wisely. No doubt if the flame is allowed to blow over the canister, or you let gas build up without it burning, the thing will be a bomb. We all know that.

I used one of these in Europe in the back of a Wicked camper van a few years ago as we travelled around in WINTER...Man it was cold, so cold in fact that the butane canisters would freeze up and no longer expel gas. Your flame would die down and go out after about 3 mins as the evaporating gas cooled the canister in a very low ambient temp. Not a problem in Aus as the air temp more than covers the cooling of the evaporating gas.

My dodgy fix, warm up or boil some water first and stand a heap of the canisters in there to warm up and change them each time they froze. You could hear them boiling the gas inside again as you lowered them into the warm water. I was a bit worried they would go bang, but it was cold and I was hungry so I did it anyway, and it was only boiling water....

curious as to how long these things have been here in aus for?
i had never seen them til about 10 years ago.(asian using them) and asked my work mates and they said the same thing. however they have been in asian countries for a generation.
my wife is korean so we have a few of them here. bought a new one 3 weeks ago just as a spare. asked her last night about this danger thing and she said excactly as fair trading website says, shes heard of them exploding plenty of times, but the reason is ALWAYS from putting a pan on thats too big and the heat cant escape up, so will go to the side and can heat up the canister. hence it is common knowledge for them (the ones that aren't in the darwin awards) to not put a pan on thats too big. however, there are larger pans you can get that a specifically designed just to use on those cookers, that are kinda like a wok so the heat can escape.

"However it appeared that misuse rather than non-compliance with the Australian Standards contributed to these explosions."

So for me given the reference to potential Darwin Award winners being the issue I'm still using them, I'm still using them according to instructions ( and common sense) and I'm amazed that this has caused such a storm in a tea cup.

Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW) firefighters were called to a house fire at Doonside just after midnight on 10 April. A portable butane cooker and cylinder had exploded in a bedroom causing significant damage. No one was injured. The cooker had been bought in recent days. This follows a public warning from NSW Fair Trading in March about the cookers because of safety issues, including overheating. Up to 31 models of butane gas cookers have been withdrawn from sale as they do not meet Australian Standards. Retailers in NSW should no longer be stocking or selling these products. Fair Trading NSW and FRNSW recommend that residents not use these sorts of portable cookers. For more information visit http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/…/201 ... ic_warning…

Surely simple to use, couldn't add to the cost greatly and will no doubt greatly minimize the loss of the Darwin gene from the Human Genome

I can see it now............. Authorities report that the injury resulted from the failure to fit the unit with a Blast Blanket as prescribed under the Protection of Cooking Morons and Imbeciles Act of 2015

the info i gleaned from fair trading was that they were withdrawn because the were deemed to no longer meet the standard. they were also being used in a manner contrary to the provided instructions when they failed.

It could also be that they were granted approval once, but maybe the standard changed or quality control slipped and they no longer meet it.